Dwyane Wade And LeBron James Will Participate In Annual Shaquille O’Neal Rivalry Game

By Richard Nurse

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Last week while at the “DwyaneWade and BrandonMarshall Sports Academy” in Chicago, the Windy City Gridiron reported that the three-time NBA champion was shifting his one-on-one focus to another foe:

“Well, it used to be KobeBryant… the second best all time…. now, I have a new favorite player to play against… my former teammate, LeBronJames.”

It’s a matchup that fans want to see and television stations want to promote so that the ratings skyrocket through the roof. And apparently the league has taken notice by tentatively scheduling one of ABC’s popular Christmas Day games to feature James and the Cleveland Cavaliers venturing to South Beach to take on his former Miami Heatbuddies.

In other words, the two friends turned on-court enemies will be participating in the 2014 version of the ShaquilleO’Neal rivalry game.

It’s called this because the “original” Superman’s trade to Miami was the start of a two-year Dec. 25 showdown to accentuate the rift between KobeBryant and O’Neal’s old Los Angeles Lakers squad. Then it was rekindled again when Shaq was sent to Cleveland in 2009. And this matchup will be no different.

The NBA will use the lack of action from a — more-than-likely — boring Cavs-Heat preseason game in Rio de Janeiro to build enough intrigue for the league to capitalize off of, through every advertisement imaginable.

Hopefully for fans, revenge will be the ultimate motivator for Wade to will he and James’ battles back to the days of averaging 28 and 29 points against each other, respectively.